We rode 35 miles today, which was great for the group considering we rode 56 miles yesterday and we’re a bit tired. I felt some pain in my left shoulder, so I’m experimenting with fore (am I spelling that right?)and aft saddle positioning. Melanie is also having some shoulder pain, I hope our adjustments help. I called my bike fitting friend Craig Watson and he gave me some good guidance.

Ada is very determined, she crashed this morning, and got going again no problem. Later on in the day Kimball crashed as well, he flew over his handlebars, and miraculously didn’t have a scrape on him. The kids typically take falls by either getting distracted or running into someone else’s rear wheel. Slow speeds, maybe 10 mph on average.

It’s very rewarding to ride longer days and actually push ourselves. Pulling two kids in the Weehoo trailer is quite hard, and many of the climbs really take the energy out of me. It feels really good to push ourselves, and I have a strong feeling of pride for the group, everyone is doing so well.

It’s great to get so much time to listen to books, and step back from regular life. I feel that after about a month of being gone I have definitely stepped back from life a bit. Not sure what clarity I’m getting yet, but it’s coming.

Having the Mosses join our group has added a new family with six people, and a new dynamic. They are a self sustaining group of capable riders, and Ken is a capable bike mechanic. He is much more of an experienced mechanic that either Dan or myself which paid off today with a wheel issue that needed some re-tensioning and truing. They also have phones that work, so their ability to communicate with each other allows them to split up. I mention this because the rest of us aren’t using cell data, and we try hard to stay together as a group because of this. It’s been great to have them join us, we made one of their sons the group accountant, and the other one helps Brittany with route planning. They are a great addition.

Campsites have become a bit more spread out, and we are putting in longer days. The last week had many canals, and I think we are moving away from some of those. We were near canals about a fourth of the time today. Canals are good because of the safety, and flat terrain. The only downside is the lack of different scenery. It’s nice to ride through towns, and up and down hills. Two or three days ago we had a day with a lot of hills, and really hot weather, and even though it was hard it was very rewarding to finish up. Definitely analogous to life.

Jason and Sonny left to the train station today to fly back to Shanghia on Friday. I called my friend Rebecca who lives 2 1/2 hours away from us to see if she wanted their three bikes. I talked to the camp host and let her know that if no one had picked up the bikes in one week that she could have them for free. So if you’re in France, you can go to the campsite and pick up three bikes for no charge:) you just have to have the four digit code, message me and I’ll send it to you. I’m hoping she can find a good home, maybe there are missionaries in the areas that need bicycles.